North Macedonia Euro 2021 squad: full team profile
© Provided by FourFourTwo nullThe North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad for this summer has been revealed.
While many of the players will be relative unknowns to even avid football fans, there are a couple of familiar faces in the mix.
Leeds defender Ezdzan Alioski will attempt to shore up the back, while former Inter Milan Champions League winner Goran Pandev leads the line. Napoli's Eljif Elmas and Stuttgart's Darko Curlinov may be the next most recognisable names in the Euro 2020 squad.
They may not have the hardest group, with Netherlands, Ukraine and Austria in the group, but they would still be pleased to take a point from their three group stage fixtures.
ALSO SEE
Euro 2020 squads: Every confirmed team for the 2021 tournament so far
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squadGK: Stole Dimitrievski (Rayo Vallecano) GK: Damjan Siskovski (Doxa) GK: Risto Jankov (Rabotnichki) DF: Stefan Ristovski (Dinamo Zagreb) DF: Kire Ristevski (Ujpest) DF: Gjoko Zajkov (Charleroi) DF: Ezgjan Alioski (Leeds United) DF: Visar Musliu (Fehervar) DF: Darko Velkovski (Rijeka) DF: Egzon Bejtulai (Shkendija) MF: Ferhan Hasani (Partizani) MF: Stefan Spirovski (AEK) MF: Enis Bardhi (Levante) MF: Boban Nikolov (Lecce) MF: Tihomir Kostadinov (Ružomberok) MF: Elif Elmas (Napoli) MF: Arijan Ademi (Dinamo Zagreb) MF: Darko Curlinov (Stuttgart) MF: Marjan Radeski (Akademija Pandev) MF: Daniel Avramovski (Kayserispor) FW: Goran Pandev (Genoa) FW: Aleksandar Trajkovski (Mallorca) FW: Krste Velkoski (Sarajevo) FW: Vlatko Stojanovski (Chambly) FW: Ivan Trickovski (AEK Larnaca) FW: Milan Ristovski (Spartak Trnava) North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad: Team profileNorth Macedonia didn’t have a hope of qualifying traditionally, yet they took full advantage of UEFA’s generosity to reach their first major tournament as an independent nation. The decision to let a relatively weak national side come through the play-offs via League D in the Nations League was controversial, but the Macedonians were thrilled with their opportunity – and striker Goran Pandev was rewarded for his patience.
But aren’t we all in this for the romance? Pandev, 37, made his debut two decades ago and had considered retiring from international duty. He stayed put, and led his country to their greatest moment with a memorable winner against Georgia.
North Macedonia did finish third in qualifying, but it was a distant third, behind Poland and Austria. In the Nations League, however, they needed only to overcome Armenia, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein, then Kosovo and Georgia in the play-offs – both of whom, admittedly, were perhaps favourites – in order to make history. Pandev wept after scoring the winner in Tbilisi. A nation cried with him.
North Macedonia’s players know they’ve been lucky to reach Euro 2020. They did, though, show some promise in qualifying. Igor Angelovski’s charges won their home matches against the three teams below them – Slovenia, Israel and Latvia – and they were also unbeaten on their travels against that trio. Opposition this summer will be an entirely different proposition, and the Red Lynxes will simply be hoping to avoid souring their summer of love.
In all, they’ve shown togetherness and a strong will to fulfil this fairy tale. They’re no charity case, either. Pandev is a great leader; Napoli’s 21-year-old midfielder
Elif Elmas is a rising star who could grab attention; Levante schemer Enis Bardhi is a top dead-ball specialist; and Leeds wideman Ezgjan Alioski is inconsistent but also capable of brilliance. Finally, Stole Dimitrievski is a reliable goalkeeper who proved calm under pressure in his country’s most important fixtures.
North Macedonia are the weakest team at Euro 2020, but they’ve nothing to lose – and, as they proved in March with an incredible 2-1 World Cup qualifying win in Germany, they have the spirit and the skill to dish out some bloody noses. Whatever happens, though, simply being here is a victory. Anything else will be a bonus.
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad: Who is North Macedonia's best player?Goran Pandev
The versatile striker – mainly an attacking midfielder nowadays – moved to Italy in 2001, won the Champions League with Inter in 2010 and had some brilliant years with Lazio and Napoli either side. Pandev is arguably the greatest Macedonian star of all time, their most capped player and leading scorer by a huge distance.
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad: Who is North Macedonia manager?Igor Angelovski
In charge since 2015, the 44-year-old is understandably popular, but his tactical skills
are still unproven and he is yet to find an optimal formation. The Skopje native has never managed a side outside Macedonia
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad: Past Euros recordEuro 2020 is North Macedonia's first tournament: since gaining independence in the early 1990s, they have ever previously qualified.
Subscribe to FourFourTwo today and get a FREE England Euro 96 shirt!
CALENDAR Euro 2020 fixtures and dates: Full schedule and how to watch every match of the 2021 summer tournament
FOR YOUR HOME Euro 2020 wall chart: Download free with full schedule, fixtures and dates
REFS Euro 2020 referees revealed: who are they, how were they selected and will VAR be in use?
© Provided by FourFourTwo nullThe North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad for this summer has been revealed.
While many of the players will be relative unknowns to even avid football fans, there are a couple of familiar faces in the mix.
Leeds defender Ezdzan Alioski will attempt to shore up the back, while former Inter Milan Champions League winner Goran Pandev leads the line. Napoli's Eljif Elmas and Stuttgart's Darko Curlinov may be the next most recognisable names in the Euro 2020 squad.
They may not have the hardest group, with Netherlands, Ukraine and Austria in the group, but they would still be pleased to take a point from their three group stage fixtures.
ALSO SEE
Euro 2020 squads: Every confirmed team for the 2021 tournament so far
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squadNorth Macedonia didn’t have a hope of qualifying traditionally, yet they took full advantage of UEFA’s generosity to reach their first major tournament as an independent nation. The decision to let a relatively weak national side come through the play-offs via League D in the Nations League was controversial, but the Macedonians were thrilled with their opportunity – and striker Goran Pandev was rewarded for his patience.
But aren’t we all in this for the romance? Pandev, 37, made his debut two decades ago and had considered retiring from international duty. He stayed put, and led his country to their greatest moment with a memorable winner against Georgia.
North Macedonia did finish third in qualifying, but it was a distant third, behind Poland and Austria. In the Nations League, however, they needed only to overcome Armenia, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein, then Kosovo and Georgia in the play-offs – both of whom, admittedly, were perhaps favourites – in order to make history. Pandev wept after scoring the winner in Tbilisi. A nation cried with him.
North Macedonia’s players know they’ve been lucky to reach Euro 2020. They did, though, show some promise in qualifying. Igor Angelovski’s charges won their home matches against the three teams below them – Slovenia, Israel and Latvia – and they were also unbeaten on their travels against that trio. Opposition this summer will be an entirely different proposition, and the Red Lynxes will simply be hoping to avoid souring their summer of love.
In all, they’ve shown togetherness and a strong will to fulfil this fairy tale. They’re no charity case, either. Pandev is a great leader; Napoli’s 21-year-old midfielder
Elif Elmas is a rising star who could grab attention; Levante schemer Enis Bardhi is a top dead-ball specialist; and Leeds wideman Ezgjan Alioski is inconsistent but also capable of brilliance. Finally, Stole Dimitrievski is a reliable goalkeeper who proved calm under pressure in his country’s most important fixtures.
North Macedonia are the weakest team at Euro 2020, but they’ve nothing to lose – and, as they proved in March with an incredible 2-1 World Cup qualifying win in Germany, they have the spirit and the skill to dish out some bloody noses. Whatever happens, though, simply being here is a victory. Anything else will be a bonus.
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad: Who is North Macedonia's best player?Goran Pandev
The versatile striker – mainly an attacking midfielder nowadays – moved to Italy in 2001, won the Champions League with Inter in 2010 and had some brilliant years with Lazio and Napoli either side. Pandev is arguably the greatest Macedonian star of all time, their most capped player and leading scorer by a huge distance.
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad: Who is North Macedonia manager?Igor Angelovski
In charge since 2015, the 44-year-old is understandably popular, but his tactical skills
are still unproven and he is yet to find an optimal formation. The Skopje native has never managed a side outside Macedonia
North Macedonia Euro 2020 squad: Past Euros recordEuro 2020 is North Macedonia's first tournament: since gaining independence in the early 1990s, they have ever previously qualified.
Subscribe to FourFourTwo today and get a FREE England Euro 96 shirt!
CALENDAR Euro 2020 fixtures and dates: Full schedule and how to watch every match of the 2021 summer tournament
FOR YOUR HOME Euro 2020 wall chart: Download free with full schedule, fixtures and dates
REFS Euro 2020 referees revealed: who are they, how were they selected and will VAR be in use?
North Macedonia at Euro 2020: How a team of national unity was not always possible in a diverse country
© Provided by The i Elif Elmas (left) could be North Macedonia's breakout star at Euro 2020 (Photo: Reuters)When North Macedonia begin their historic Euro 2020 campaign against Austria in Bucharest on Sunday, it will mark more than just the culmination of an unlikely football fairytale.
The multinational, patchwork side assembled by coach Igor Angelovski are representatives of a complicated nation whose identity has been moulded by outside forces, but also by an internal habit of self-sabotage.
Macedonians haven’t always found it easy to define themselves. The territory of the modern state spent 500 years as part of the Ottoman Empire, before passing via Serbia’s jurisdiction into the new state of Yugoslavia in 1919. As a consequence, Macedonian “nationhood” formed largely as a counter-movement to what were considered by early nationalists to be colonial powers.
Post-independence in 1991, local relationships have been fraught. The Greek government in Athens spent almost three decades opposing Macedonia’s right to use the name, alleging that by co-opting the heritage of ancient Macedonia, the former Yugoslav republic was making a de facto claim on Greek territory.
Skopje amended the country’s name to North Macedonia in 2019, ending the feud and circumventing the Greek veto on the country’s EU accession, but opposition from Bulgaria, where some nationalists deny that the Macedonian people are anything other than Bulgarians, still bars the way.
But the biggest threat to the country’s security has come from the inside. In 2001, tensions between the state and the country’s large ethnic Albanian community spilled over, and an armed insurgency was launched in the country’s north in protest at Skopje’s oppression of Albanian identity, including restrictions on the language and the right to display the flag. It was a culmination of an inflexible state’s intolerance of Macedonia’s historic ethnic plurality.
When the country played its first competitive football fixture, a World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein in Skopje in 1996, all 14 players used were ethnic Macedonians. Yet the team to play Austria on Sunday could feature as many as six players of Albanian and Turkish origin. It’s a situation that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago.
“During the 90s, the regime wanted to play the same political game as during Communism,” says former Macedonia international midfielder and ethnic Albanian, Nebi Mustafi. “Throughout Yugoslavia’s history, Albanians suffered. And that meant that football suffered.
“When I started, there were very few Albanians playing football here. When I played in the national team, there were maybe only two or three Albanian names.
“Before, everything was politics. But later, with the liberalisation of Macedonia and the effects of globalisation, it was no longer possible to control society in this way. Now, what counts is quality. And so you search for that quality. That has meant the names of Albanian footballers started to rise to the surface.”
A gradual liberalisation of the state’s approach to its minority peoples has been reflected in the results of the national championship. Between 1998-01, the title was won three times by FK Sloga Jugomagnat, a club formed by Macedonia’s Albanian and Turkish communities in the 1940s and whose name fittingly translates as “unity”. Their success was a mark of Macedonia beginning to open up to the world and the shedding of its Communist-era, mono-cultural habits.
© Provided by The i Coach Igor Angelovski has pulled together a multicultural group of players (Photo: Getty)Since then, Albanian footballers have risen to the top of the country’s football, both domestically and for the national team. FK Shkendija, an Albanian-owned club from the town of Tetovo near the Kosovan border, have been champions in three of the last four seasons, and played Tottenham in last season’s Europa League. Their ascendency reflects the peace that the country has finally found with its dual heritage.
“A consequence of the political change is that you have Shkendija, who are mostly made up of Albanian players, are now the best team in the country,” says Mustafi. “The president of the Macedonian Football Federation, he is also Albanian. Why? Because when you search for the quality, this is what you find.
“It wasn’t natural, with the huge numbers of Albanians living in Macedonia, that before 2001 there were just two or three Albanians in the national team. That was a decision that somebody made. When you see that a group has a particular talent for football and you choose not to use it, that is stupidity.”
The brightest star of the new-look, multicultural national team is the 21-year-old Napoli midfielder, Elif Elmas, born in Skopje to Turkish parents. It was his goal in March that sent Germany to just their second-ever home qualifying defeat as North Macedonia pulled off a stunning 2-1 World Cup win in Duisburg. His midfield partner, the ethnic Albanian Enis Bardhi, is a dead ball specialist for Levante in La Liga, and there is room too in the side for one of Shkendija’s own, the Albanian full-back, Egzon Bejtulai.
“Shkendija, with it’s Albanian heritage, have become absolutely the best team in our country,” says Suat Zendeli, the goalkeeper who was a title winner with Shkendija in 2011. “I think we’re maybe only one step away from being in the group stage of the Europa League.
“I was proud to win the first championship with Shkendija, I was proud for our Albanian heritage. But I’m more proud of the way the Albanian and Macedonian people have united in football. It is what our country is about now.”
Mustafi adds: “When Yugoslavia ended and the borders opened, people began to move around and they learned all about professionalism. They looked at England and saw how football is managed there. Since then, the Macedonian state has had a more realistic view of the world.”
© Provided by The i Elif Elmas (left) could be North Macedonia's breakout star at Euro 2020 (Photo: Reuters)When North Macedonia begin their historic Euro 2020 campaign against Austria in Bucharest on Sunday, it will mark more than just the culmination of an unlikely football fairytale.
The multinational, patchwork side assembled by coach Igor Angelovski are representatives of a complicated nation whose identity has been moulded by outside forces, but also by an internal habit of self-sabotage.
Macedonians haven’t always found it easy to define themselves. The territory of the modern state spent 500 years as part of the Ottoman Empire, before passing via Serbia’s jurisdiction into the new state of Yugoslavia in 1919. As a consequence, Macedonian “nationhood” formed largely as a counter-movement to what were considered by early nationalists to be colonial powers.
Post-independence in 1991, local relationships have been fraught. The Greek government in Athens spent almost three decades opposing Macedonia’s right to use the name, alleging that by co-opting the heritage of ancient Macedonia, the former Yugoslav republic was making a de facto claim on Greek territory.
Skopje amended the country’s name to North Macedonia in 2019, ending the feud and circumventing the Greek veto on the country’s EU accession, but opposition from Bulgaria, where some nationalists deny that the Macedonian people are anything other than Bulgarians, still bars the way.
But the biggest threat to the country’s security has come from the inside. In 2001, tensions between the state and the country’s large ethnic Albanian community spilled over, and an armed insurgency was launched in the country’s north in protest at Skopje’s oppression of Albanian identity, including restrictions on the language and the right to display the flag. It was a culmination of an inflexible state’s intolerance of Macedonia’s historic ethnic plurality.
When the country played its first competitive football fixture, a World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein in Skopje in 1996, all 14 players used were ethnic Macedonians. Yet the team to play Austria on Sunday could feature as many as six players of Albanian and Turkish origin. It’s a situation that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago.
“During the 90s, the regime wanted to play the same political game as during Communism,” says former Macedonia international midfielder and ethnic Albanian, Nebi Mustafi. “Throughout Yugoslavia’s history, Albanians suffered. And that meant that football suffered.
“When I started, there were very few Albanians playing football here. When I played in the national team, there were maybe only two or three Albanian names.
“Before, everything was politics. But later, with the liberalisation of Macedonia and the effects of globalisation, it was no longer possible to control society in this way. Now, what counts is quality. And so you search for that quality. That has meant the names of Albanian footballers started to rise to the surface.”
A gradual liberalisation of the state’s approach to its minority peoples has been reflected in the results of the national championship. Between 1998-01, the title was won three times by FK Sloga Jugomagnat, a club formed by Macedonia’s Albanian and Turkish communities in the 1940s and whose name fittingly translates as “unity”. Their success was a mark of Macedonia beginning to open up to the world and the shedding of its Communist-era, mono-cultural habits.
© Provided by The i Coach Igor Angelovski has pulled together a multicultural group of players (Photo: Getty)Since then, Albanian footballers have risen to the top of the country’s football, both domestically and for the national team. FK Shkendija, an Albanian-owned club from the town of Tetovo near the Kosovan border, have been champions in three of the last four seasons, and played Tottenham in last season’s Europa League. Their ascendency reflects the peace that the country has finally found with its dual heritage.
“A consequence of the political change is that you have Shkendija, who are mostly made up of Albanian players, are now the best team in the country,” says Mustafi. “The president of the Macedonian Football Federation, he is also Albanian. Why? Because when you search for the quality, this is what you find.
“It wasn’t natural, with the huge numbers of Albanians living in Macedonia, that before 2001 there were just two or three Albanians in the national team. That was a decision that somebody made. When you see that a group has a particular talent for football and you choose not to use it, that is stupidity.”
The brightest star of the new-look, multicultural national team is the 21-year-old Napoli midfielder, Elif Elmas, born in Skopje to Turkish parents. It was his goal in March that sent Germany to just their second-ever home qualifying defeat as North Macedonia pulled off a stunning 2-1 World Cup win in Duisburg. His midfield partner, the ethnic Albanian Enis Bardhi, is a dead ball specialist for Levante in La Liga, and there is room too in the side for one of Shkendija’s own, the Albanian full-back, Egzon Bejtulai.
“Shkendija, with it’s Albanian heritage, have become absolutely the best team in our country,” says Suat Zendeli, the goalkeeper who was a title winner with Shkendija in 2011. “I think we’re maybe only one step away from being in the group stage of the Europa League.
“I was proud to win the first championship with Shkendija, I was proud for our Albanian heritage. But I’m more proud of the way the Albanian and Macedonian people have united in football. It is what our country is about now.”
Mustafi adds: “When Yugoslavia ended and the borders opened, people began to move around and they learned all about professionalism. They looked at England and saw how football is managed there. Since then, the Macedonian state has had a more realistic view of the world.”
Austria vs North Macedonia, Euro 2020 live: score, team news and latest updates from Bucharest
Good afternoon!Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport's live coverage of today's second match at Euro 2020, between Austria and North Macedonia in Group C at the Arena Nationala in Bucharest, Romania.
Among the players taking part in Euro 2020, Goran Pandev has a unique distinction: he is older than the country he represents (Jim White writes).
He was seven years of age when Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 1 January 1991 (the ‘ North’ bit was added later to distinguish the country from the Greek territory of the same name). Now, aged 38, he will lead his homeland in a competition he never expected to engage with.
It will be the final time he ever kicks a ball in earnest: he is hanging up his boots after its conclusion. “It will for sure be a tournament of emotions for me,” he told a Macedonian fan website. “It is a first and last: the first time our country has ever reached the finals and for me the last matches I ever play.”
Pandev may have won the Champions League, he may be the only man ever to win the Italian Cup in four successive seasons and he may once have been described by Jose Mourinho as the single most reliable footballer he had ever worked with, but for him the next few weeks will be the most important of his life.
“Euro 2020 is the peak of my career,” he said. “To be here with my country is something I never thought would be possible.”
Indeed it might never have happened. In 2014 he announced his international retirement. His country had failed to qualify for the Brazil World Cup and he blamed the then manager Bosko Gjurovski, quitting in a surge of disappointment.
At the news of his stepping down the nation went into something approaching a state of mourning. This was by far and away its most accomplished son abandoning the cause.
Something, anything, had to be done to persuade him back. Thus the new manager, Igor Angelovski, made it his priority on his appointment to return him to the fold. Everything depended on his presence.
“He is the best football player in our history and I’m happy and grateful that he accepted to come back as our leader, both on and off the pitch,” Angelovski, who remains manager largely because of his positive relations with the star performer, said in a recent interview.
“We really have made a national team that lives united as a family, that will die for each other on the pitch. And he is at its heart.”
Goran Pandev is a national hero in North Macedonia Credit: EPALike many Macedonians, who flock there in their thousands to work in hospitality and agriculture, Pandev made his career in Italy. He was signed as a 17-year-old by Inter Milan, developed his game at Lazio, where he won the cup, before returning to Milan in 2009, just ahead of Mourinho.
He found his ideal coach. And the feeling was mutual: the Portuguese loved his selfless effort, his relentless determination, his ability as a free-floating forward not only to create space to exploit, but to track back and defend when necessary.
So it was, in a team of superstars like Walter Samuel, Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto’o, that the unassuming Pandev became the first name on the team sheet. In the process he helped the club win the first treble in Italian history.
“I did everything the manager asked of me,” he said. “Including playing as a winger, even though I have always been a first or second striker.”
Sadly for him, when Mourinho left for Real Madrid he did not find such symbiosis with the new man Rafael Benitez. “Benitez and I did not have a good relationship,” he said. “In fact he is the worst manager I ever played for.”
He was one of the first of that history-defining Inter team to be jettisoned, sent off first to Napoli, where he won the cup again, before ending up, after an unhappy short diversion at Galatasaray, in Genoa.
Pandev in action for Genoa last season Credit: EPAThere he found another common cause, scoring the critical goals that kept them in Serie A, leading to him being worshipped locally. But even from exile his focus has always remained on his homeland.
In his home town of Strumica, he opened a public gymnasium and a bar, a place which was at the centre of wild pandemic-ignoring celebrations when Pandev scored the goal which beat Georgia in the play-off to take North Macedonia to the Euro finals. They were at it again when North Macedonia beat Germany in a World Cup qualifier, their man again on the scoresheet.
In 2010, he founded a football club in the town called Akademija Pandev. Last season, they were promoted to the Macedonian top flight, with his brother Sashko at the heart of their midfield.
But while he bestrides his country’s football like a Balkan Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Cristiano Ronaldo, he has none of their flamboyance. Not for him stocking an offshore island with wildlife to shoot from a helicopter or filming slo-mo videos of his grooming regime.
He lives a quiet life with his high school sweetheart Nadica, devoted to their three daughters. “I never felt like a celebrity,” he said. “I just want to do my best for the country. This shirt is holy for me.”
Now he is bringing down the curtain on his exalted career in which he accumulated a record 118 caps and scored 37 times, in a place he never imagined he’d be: playing at an international tournament for a country younger than him.
Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport's live coverage of today's second match at Euro 2020, between Austria and North Macedonia in Group C at the Arena Nationala in Bucharest, Romania.
Among the players taking part in Euro 2020, Goran Pandev has a unique distinction: he is older than the country he represents (Jim White writes).
He was seven years of age when Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 1 January 1991 (the ‘ North’ bit was added later to distinguish the country from the Greek territory of the same name). Now, aged 38, he will lead his homeland in a competition he never expected to engage with.
It will be the final time he ever kicks a ball in earnest: he is hanging up his boots after its conclusion. “It will for sure be a tournament of emotions for me,” he told a Macedonian fan website. “It is a first and last: the first time our country has ever reached the finals and for me the last matches I ever play.”
Pandev may have won the Champions League, he may be the only man ever to win the Italian Cup in four successive seasons and he may once have been described by Jose Mourinho as the single most reliable footballer he had ever worked with, but for him the next few weeks will be the most important of his life.
“Euro 2020 is the peak of my career,” he said. “To be here with my country is something I never thought would be possible.”
Indeed it might never have happened. In 2014 he announced his international retirement. His country had failed to qualify for the Brazil World Cup and he blamed the then manager Bosko Gjurovski, quitting in a surge of disappointment.
At the news of his stepping down the nation went into something approaching a state of mourning. This was by far and away its most accomplished son abandoning the cause.
Something, anything, had to be done to persuade him back. Thus the new manager, Igor Angelovski, made it his priority on his appointment to return him to the fold. Everything depended on his presence.
“He is the best football player in our history and I’m happy and grateful that he accepted to come back as our leader, both on and off the pitch,” Angelovski, who remains manager largely because of his positive relations with the star performer, said in a recent interview.
“We really have made a national team that lives united as a family, that will die for each other on the pitch. And he is at its heart.”
Like many Macedonians, who flock there in their thousands to work in hospitality and agriculture, Pandev made his career in Italy. He was signed as a 17-year-old by Inter Milan, developed his game at Lazio, where he won the cup, before returning to Milan in 2009, just ahead of Mourinho.
He found his ideal coach. And the feeling was mutual: the Portuguese loved his selfless effort, his relentless determination, his ability as a free-floating forward not only to create space to exploit, but to track back and defend when necessary.
So it was, in a team of superstars like Walter Samuel, Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto’o, that the unassuming Pandev became the first name on the team sheet. In the process he helped the club win the first treble in Italian history.
“I did everything the manager asked of me,” he said. “Including playing as a winger, even though I have always been a first or second striker.”
Sadly for him, when Mourinho left for Real Madrid he did not find such symbiosis with the new man Rafael Benitez. “Benitez and I did not have a good relationship,” he said. “In fact he is the worst manager I ever played for.”
He was one of the first of that history-defining Inter team to be jettisoned, sent off first to Napoli, where he won the cup again, before ending up, after an unhappy short diversion at Galatasaray, in Genoa.
There he found another common cause, scoring the critical goals that kept them in Serie A, leading to him being worshipped locally. But even from exile his focus has always remained on his homeland.
In his home town of Strumica, he opened a public gymnasium and a bar, a place which was at the centre of wild pandemic-ignoring celebrations when Pandev scored the goal which beat Georgia in the play-off to take North Macedonia to the Euro finals. They were at it again when North Macedonia beat Germany in a World Cup qualifier, their man again on the scoresheet.
In 2010, he founded a football club in the town called Akademija Pandev. Last season, they were promoted to the Macedonian top flight, with his brother Sashko at the heart of their midfield.
But while he bestrides his country’s football like a Balkan Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Cristiano Ronaldo, he has none of their flamboyance. Not for him stocking an offshore island with wildlife to shoot from a helicopter or filming slo-mo videos of his grooming regime.
He lives a quiet life with his high school sweetheart Nadica, devoted to their three daughters. “I never felt like a celebrity,” he said. “I just want to do my best for the country. This shirt is holy for me.”
Now he is bringing down the curtain on his exalted career in which he accumulated a record 118 caps and scored 37 times, in a place he never imagined he’d be: playing at an international tournament for a country younger than him.
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